Office of the Athletics Director

Douglas W. Palmer has a large and broad history as an athletics administrator, coach, and public servant. Palmer has won a college national championship as a coach and has hosted multiple national championships as an administrator. He has served the local community in various roles with the Chamber of Commerce, Rotaries, scholarship organizations and city committees. He has been president, vice president, and a member of boards of multiple organizations.

He won the 1993 NAIA National Softball Tournament as head coach of the University of West Florida softball team. While at UWF, he headed up the committee that brought the 2006 NCAA II Fall Sports Festival to the City of Pensacola, Fla. The Sports Festival included the sports of women’s volleyball, men’s and women’s soccer, women’s field hockey, and men’s and women’s cross country, which conducted their national championships on the campus of the University of West Florida, in Escambia County, Fla., and the City of Pensacola sport facilities.

Palmer also served as chairman for three National Softball Championships (2 NAIA, 1 NCAA II), 3 NCAA II National Men’s and Women’s Tennis Tournaments and numerous regional and conference championships.

As a coach, Palmer was the National Softball Coach of the Year for the NAIA and NFCA in 1993. He produced 24 All-American players in eight years as the head coach for the University of West Florida along with six Academic All-Americans. As an assistant coach at the University of South Carolina, the team finished third at the NCAA I College World Series in 1983. As an assistant coach at Florida State University, he helped lead the Seminoles to two 50 win seasons as the hitting coach.

Palmer has owned and operated several sports and softball camps in the Southeast United States and helped start fast-pitch camps at Florida State University, the University of South Carolina, Winthrop University, the University of West Florida, Lander University, and others.

He also served as president of the Shoreline Chamber of Commerce, president of the Shoreline Dollars for Scholars Program, vice president of the Shoreline Breakfast Rotary, and a member of the City of Shoreline Economic Development Committee, as well as on many college and university committees. 

 

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